Public Service Announcement: if you’re planning on going to SXSWi in March, book your hotel now. A bunch of them are already sold out, as I learned the hard way this week. No Hampton Inn for me this year.

I ended up at the Radisson on Congress/Caeser Chavez. Close enough to the conference centre and reasonably priced (the Canadian dollar is way improved over the past two years, but still a liability), though I have no idea what the facilities are like. Bit of a crapshoot. We’ll see.

Conferences usually pre-reserve a block of rooms, so when those are all gone the hotel may still have rooms available even though the conference organizers claim it’s sold out.

When I attempted to book at the Hampton several weeks ago it was already “full” according to the SXSW website, but I managed to snag a room by booking directly with the hotel. The downside is that I lost the conference group discount and the room is costing me an extra $30 or so per night. I intend to recoup that at the breakfast buffet.

The Hampton sold out a while ago, unforunately. I missed it by one day. Managed to get in at the Crowne Plaza however, which according to this map ( http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/745 ) is pretty close….

Yup. I tried booking a hotel room at the Hampton for myself and my buddy in the middle of November and was told that I got the (literally) last room available. Very crazy - apparently 2006 is some kind of anniversary year for SXSW and conference sales are *way* up. Should be a blast!